Written by the Hadash Coaltion – Hadash is the Electorial Front in Israeli Politics (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) and has representation in the Israeli Knesset. WEBSITE HERE
MK Cassif: “The purpose of this law is to protect terrorists from administrative arrests just because they are Jews, it is an apartheid law”
The Constitution Committee yesterday began advancing a bill on emergency powers (arrests), which seeks to regulate administrative detentions for Israeli citizens suspected of membership in terrorist organizations. The bill includes a provision that allows the Minister of Defense to order the administrative detention of an Israeli citizen, “given a reasonable basis for his involvement in a terrorist organization.”
According to the proposal, the provisions in the emergency defense regulations dealing with restriction orders will not apply to Israeli citizens unless the Minister of Defense has reasonable grounds to believe that the citizen of the State of Israel is a member of a terrorist organization listed in the addendum to the law. The addendum will include “terrorist organizations operating with the aim of harming the existence of the State of Israel or with the aim of committing terrorist acts against its citizens”.
The chairman of the committee, MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism), who is one of the initiators of the law, stated that the bill was brought “after many attempts to find a solution for serious extreme cases”, and emphasized that the use of emergency detentions was done in an “excessive” manner, mainly on the part of the fired defense minister Yoav Galant from the Likud. According to him, “there is disproportionate enforcement against Jewish citizens, and this at a time when the number of attacks by Arab citizens of Israel is increasing at a steep rate.”
MK Limor Son Har-Malech agreed with his words, while also criticizing Galant. “The ease with which administrative orders are issued to settlers, while being completely ignored by human rights organizations, is worrisome,” she said. She noted that the tool has become “routine”. The outgoing defense minister is under pressure from foreign sources, and added: “A boy from the hills or a father of children is uprooted from their beds at night because they wanted to build a house, and all based on an administrative order.”
On the other hand, MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) attacked the bill and emphasized that “administrative detention is a dictatorial tool without trial, without evidence, and it doesn’t matter who it is aimed at, right or left, Palestinian or settler. It is a fundamentally wrong tool and must be completely abolished. But the bill does the opposite, it wants to continue the administrative arrests of only Palestinians, and uses the washed-up language that ‘only those who attack civilians’ will be impossible to arrest. Booth, and a few individual Jews against whom what was issued was mainly an expulsion order.”
“We are overwhelmingly against administrative detentions, but bringing in a law whose purpose is to protect terrorists from administrative detentions only because they are Jews is an apartheid bill that fits in with the apartheid regime in the territories and in Israel in recent years,” he added and concluded “Jewish nationalistic terrorism definitely needs to be eradicated, but not through an anti-democratic and brutal administrative detention”.
MK Alon Shuster (state camp) said in the debate “The only question is whether to use the more moderate term of Jewish nationalist crime or Jewish terrorism. There is no debate that Arab terrorism is greater and much more dangerous to human life than Jewish terrorism, but there is Jewish nationalist crime both in Judea and Samaria and in other places.” MK Ram Ben Barak (Yesh Atid) commented on this: “The main terrorist sits as the Minister of National Security.”
In the meantime, the Knesset tonight approved in second and third reading a bill that allows the Minister of the Interior to deport relatives of terrorists from Israel for a period of up to 20 years. In addition, a temporary order was approved for five years that allows children convicted of capital offenses as part of an act of terrorism to be sentenced to prison from the age of 12. The law was passed with the support of 61 Knesset members compared to 41 opposed, and the temporary order was supported by 55 MKs, compared to 33 who opposed.
The vote was held at the end of a filibuster that lasted into the late hours of the night. According to the bill, if the Minister of the Interior was under the impression that a family member of a terrorist knew in advance of his plan to commit an act of terrorism and he did not make all the necessary efforts to prevent it, such as reporting to the security agencies or the police; or expressed support or identification with an act of terrorism, he may order the deportation of that family member to Gaza, or to another deportation destination to be determined according to the circumstances.
The bill also details the procedure by which the family will be deported: the minister will first summon the family member to a hearing that will be held within 10 days from the date of the notification of the hearing; During the hearing, the family member will be given the opportunity to assert his claims and he will be entitled to legal representation; Within 14 days the minister will deliver his decision. The Israel Police will be entitled to use reasonable force, if necessary, to enforce the law. The validity of the deportation order for a family member with Israeli citizenship will be a minimum of seven years and a maximum of 15 years. In the case of a person who holds a license for temporary residence or permanent residence in Israel, the deportation order shall not be less than 10 years and shall not exceed 20 years.
Knesset members from the Hadash-Ta’al faction opposed the bill. MK Aida Toma-Soliman said that “They said about this law that it is predatory, that it is very broad, yet they add patchwork upon patchwork, they put us all in an inhumane, unconstitutional situation, a situation that violates basic human rights. If there is someone the state thinks is supporting terrorism, there is the law – exhaust the criminal procedure with him, but for a minister to issue an order to deport a family? If it’s old people or children, or mom and dad who weren’t involved, will they be deported? Where does it sound like they will be denied citizenship based on family ties? Fascism is already seeping into society and into this house.”
As mentioned, a law was also approved tonight that allows prison sentences to be imposed on children aged 12 and over. The age of criminal responsibility in Israel is 12, but until its approval, prison sentences could only be imposed from the age of 14. The drafters of the interim order, presented by MK Yitzhak Kreuzer (Otzma Yehudit), stated that in their opinion “the severity we attribute to terrorism and acts of terrorism that cause casualties in life and property, And the fact that these acts of terrorism are also carried out by minors, requires strict consideration.”
The Committee Against Torture stated in response that the law seeks to deprive minors of the protections regarding arrests granted to them under the Youth Law. In the organization’s opinion sent to members of the Knesset ahead of the vote, the organization stated that, among other things, the right not to be shackled in a public place, the right to be brought before a judge within 12 hours, the right to separate detention with minors, and the right to invite a parent or relative to a detention hearing will be affected.
Parents Against Child Detention added, “Depriving children under the age of 14 of their freedom is a measure that has been proven time and time again to be ineffective, and that’s without talking about the moral consequences for the lives of these children. According to the opinion of mental health experts, depriving children of these ages of their freedom can significantly damage their mental health and thus increase their suffering later in life.
Whoever thinks that such a step will bring peace is living in an illusion. This is how a snowball begins to roll that will lead to increased violence. We must not agree to this bill and oppose it. For our child and the future of the region.”
Find the original article in Hebrew HERE